made by Rosie

Here's Fidget's busy work for a day's recuperation. I also baked cookies for her to ice, but those were not as successful. They were about as soft as ceramic tiles. So that wasn't a recipe to repeat.

We missed a couple days' schoolwork, a day of karate, and I was glad that her fever was gone by mid-morning today; that she showed an intetest in making a doll, and I encouraged her as her stitches improved with close attention. This precious doll with her hand-embroidered eyes& lashes, was her great gift to me after a day spent happily cutting and sewing snippets together.

I still have the Matrida painting to finish, fabric for renewing the sofas, and a surprise to finish for a young bride. Plenty to keep me busy, and many contemplative moments.

The more I struggle with a painful jaw condition this winter, the more my ears hurt and the more I value silence. Not only my own, but heart's silence as well. I find with joy that God does speak, if I will but listen. In silence is beauty.

Post Sweet Post

The front porch project may not be finished, but if you ask me the most important part looks fabulous. Thanks to the Pres for an early Valentine present! It's going to make checking the mail all the sweeter.

Work in Progress

Here is the painting I am working on these days, of a little orphan girl named Matrida. Our family recently began to sponsor her and it is changing our lives and prayers. From what we understand, studies have shown the best way to defeat poverty is by individual child sponsorship. We trust God is working in Matrida's life and blessing her, just as He is us through this process. Glory be to God!

The Shop is Open!

Last week was a great week. I was sick, so it wasn't such a fun week, but I finally published the summer edition of the family newsletter, The Current. And then I did what seemed the impossible dream, I opened an Etsy shop! Here are a few items to give you a feel for the flavor of it. Take a look and let me know what you think. I have called it JewelofBayshore and will hope to put a link to it on the sidebar.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/jewelofbayshore

Jelly Doughnuts!

 

The Pres is off today, persevering on our front porch project. 

It was the perfect day to get up and make jelly doughnuts.

I have no idea where I got this recipe 20 years ago. Now that I remember how delicious they are I'll make them more often. But it takes almost 3 hours and makes about 20 doughnuts at a time, so it's not something for every day unless you've got a bigger family than ours. You want to share these with some special people.

After their second rising, they get deep fried for about 2 minutes.

After draining them on paper towels they get rolled in sugar.

 It is tempting to eat them just like this. 

But don't skip the jelly step.

 Even if, like me, you make a botch of the jelly part. It would be nice to have a pastry bag or an injector to get the jelly in without making a mess, but who minds a little bit of jelly on the sides?

Even Fidget, the notorious jelly-hater, liked the one I gave her with raspberry preserves in it. But her favorite one had honey inside instead. 

 Jelly Doughnuts

with apologies to whoever developed this delicious recipe. If I knew your name I'd put it here.

makes 14-18 

1 pkg yeast

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup warm water

1/3 cup room temperature butter

3 TB sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk, scalded

2 eggs, beaten

2 1/2 cups flour (it took me 3 1/2 cups so don't be alarmed if it takes you that much too)

jelly- I used Polaner All Fruit Raspberry seedless, Market Pantry Blackberry Seedless jam and Smucker's Orchard's Finest Northewest Triple Berry Preserves

sugar

frying oil

In a large bowl combine yeast, 1 tsp sugar and water. Let stand  until foamy, 5-10 minutes. In a small bowl combine butter, 3 TB sugar, salt and milk; cool to room temperature. Stir milk mix into yeast mix. Add eggs and 1 3/4 cup flour; beat vigorously. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a stiff dough. Turn dough out and knead 8-10 minutes. Clean and grease bowl, place dough in bowl, and turn to grease all sides. Cover and let rise til double, about an hour. Place parchment paper on cookie sheets. Punch dough down, roll out to 1/2" thick. Cut dough with a floured 2 1/2" biscuit cutter. Place dough circles on the baking sheets. Cover and let rise til double, less than an hour this time. Fry risen circles of dough at 350 in a deep fryer approximately 2 minutes or until brown. Fry 5 at a time. Once drained onto paper towels, roll doughnuts in sugar. Then cut a deep slice in the doughnuts and fill with 2 tsp jelly. Enjoy!

For more inspiration visit the fabulous showcase of yeast breads and sweet goodies at Yeast Spotting's blog,  www.wildyeastblog.com

Summer Projects

I haven't been writing many letters lately and I miss it. 

The past few weeks, the Pres has been out of the country. That is prime time for writing letters. But I caught my sandal running up our brick front steps and fell, crushing my pinky, rendering my writing hand pretty useless. So my hand stayed wrapped most of the time and I sat around reading while Fidget was in a lovely camp called Latin Summer put on by these folks near Williamsburg.


In spite of the pile-up at my desk, we've had some encouraging progress around here. The Pres returned last week, was promoted on Fidget's 9th birthday, and then with Grandaddy's help he put up the porch ceiling boards. It was so lovely to have a week with the grand-folk. We got to do lots of celebrating. And then we put Grandaddy to work.
 

Those are the boards we've been sanding all summer and I was coating with 3 layers of polyurethane while the Pres was gone. Once we get a fresh coat of paint on everything else up front, I think the ceiling will really gleam. 

Because the porch has one stage complete we moved on to a sort of tree house for Fig. Yesterday we finished the platform and are going to think about what to do next.

Looks like Fig likes it already.

And...

Here are some shots from the Pres' trip. He even got to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef! Lucky duck.

What a blessing to have a week of family time before he has to go back to work. As usual, math work is waiting for Fig. 

I think it may always be waiting for her. But for now, surf's up!

Cookies for Everyone!

Happy Sabbath Day! A day to worship, to relax, to work on a few porch ceiling boards, and often a day to fool around with a new recipe. My friend Delicioso just sent me these adorable chocolate dipped shortbread 'tea bag' cookies. Need I say more? Sure, they're for tea lovers, but really these cookies would cheer anyone. This has got to be on my next tea party menu! Thanks, dear friend! xoxo






And thanks to Emmaline Bride. The recipe is there. Go for it!

Sweet Daddy-O

For Father's Day I made the Pres these divine cookies. Homemade Nutter Butters! What better way to tell him we're nuts about him?

 
When we were first married and had almost no money, it was a big deal when he would get Nutter Butters from the grocery. We just didn't have a lot of money for extras like chips or cookies. God has blessed us so much in the following years. Not just monetarily, but with a relationship growing closer to Him and each other. 

Now that we have a bit more, we could buy cookies but don't, as I like to bake and generally keep sweet things coming out of the oven. I think it was worth it to try these, even though they are softer, the filling sweeter, than the packaged kind. They're better than the package, but as the Pres pointed out, they're sweet enough you can't just sit down and eat 30 in one sitting like you could with the package...Not that we would. :) Here's the recipe for Homemade Nutter Butters, thanks to Cookies and Cups blog. 

Notice I forgot to take photos once they were baked and made into sandwiches with the sweet confectioners sugar and peanut butter icing. We were too busy eating!

Appetizers in Abundance

We're already one week past our family's 3rd Annual Appetizer Weekend. What fun we had! That week I'd spent a lot of time in the kitchen making brownies ( here's the recipe from the Hershey's website), blondies and breads. Several friends earned their black belts in karate so I made them goodies to celebrate.

One of the moms gave me a bouquet of beautiful flowers. Even after a week these were still so pretty and cheerful in the dining room. I wish I'd gotten a picture with all the roses in it when they first arrived. 

On to appetizer weekend!It was our annual family party and I had such a good time planning for it. Here's what I made:  Friday night we had Spicy Asian Lettuce Wraps, Rotel cheese dip and chips, mini crab cakes and broccoli and cauliflower in dip. 
Saturday breakfast was French toast dipping sticks and syrup and strawberries.
At lunch I made Asiago cheese dip and glazed chicken wings, and Fidget's friend Sky came to sample the goodies.

Sunday at lunch we had a few spring rolls and steamed dumplings. Sunday night we had potato skins, more spring rolls and everything else that was left over. Somewhere in there I also made bacon crescents for the first time, which were a bit hit. They were tiny fiddly things made out of refrigerated crescent rolls smeared with a creamy spread made with fresh-cooked bacon. Somehow I never found time for the avacado-stuffed cherry tomatoes, spinach-parmesan dip, or the sweet fruity dip I was going to make. But the list gets more ambitious every year.

It is such a joy to plan this special weekend celebrating my family every year. God is good to us to give us loving family relationships. No matter what our struggles or differences we can celebrate the family God gave us.

Exciting Summer Plans

Gracious, it's been over a month! We had a few weeks of sickness here in April. It was a busy month still, as I tested for my green belt- and passed. Yay! I'm in Fidget's class now and we're having so much fun. If I'd known karate was this much fun I would have started it sooner!

Looks like summer's almost here already. I've been working on some knitting and painting and have plans for opening an etsy shop in late August! I want to thank all my pen pals for participating in my one-for-one offer: If they send me a pretty postcard, I paint a picture of it and send it to them. Then my hope is to paint another and offer it at the etsy shop. So far they're such fun I've had a hard time not sending them off the minute they're painted. Here's another peek at my sketchbook and some new work.

The cool weather we've had lately is just gorgeous and our yard has gotten considerably better-looking than the sad and neglected state in which we found it upon move-in. Fidget and I have started running 2 miles in the mornings and are enjoying seeing all the new birds and squirrels in the neighborhood.

Fidget has exciting summer plans as well. After all, art and playing are great but her mind wants more work to do! So she is taking beginning Latin from a dear friend this summer. After the first class this week, she wanted to play Latin teacher when her friend came over later that day. So it looks like this class is a good fit for her. She is also planning to attend a Latin summer camp and a karate Olympics camp.

There have been sad and alarming things all over in the past month and this is something I want to address. Because just last fall God brought me out of a season of fear. I can testify that the past weeks God has been faithful to be my strength and my shield, a peaceful force to my soul that overcame any anxiety. 

I want to encourage you that no matter what you face personally, no matter what our country faces, God will always be enough. He is trustworthy, He is faithful. It is faith in Him that allows us to have joy even when things are sad. We know He will redeem everything bad one day. I hope you can see and appreciate that He gives us many great blessings here, but I also pray you say with me 'Come, Lord Jesus. Come!'

Comfort

Grey skies, rain and grieving here today. I was reminded last week that the tough questions, the unsolved hurts, are times we must choose to draw near to God. We can trust even when we don't understand, and God will bring redemption of even those things that we cannot reconcile. We continue to unpack. Here is a little quilt that gets broken every time we move. I am finally making a new little clay figure, a little Fidget swinging high and carefree, that I made from one of my favorite old photos of her. The quilt isn't ruined if I determine to make it better as I refashion it. Just as the hard things don't break us, but increase our faith as we offer them back to God.

latest little lovely

Here's a just-finished project: fingerless gloves for a friend's little girl. It's a sweet and soft Cashmere blend called Cash Vero. We're moving back to River's Edge next week but we are keeping busy with our schooling, pen pals and karate. Wishing you daily joys and reminders of God's loving presence.

Optimism

Lots of great things are going on at the Train Central workshop. Yes, we're into the grey days of winter. But the thing about being a believer is that the Lord gives our spirits great buoyancy, no matter what is going on in the world, in our hearts, or in our schedules. So, we carry on. As the Bible says, we are not consumed. Instead, we knit :).

Here are two gifts completed this week.

Some luscious, just-arrived bulky soft 

Italian wools for winter projects.

 

 

Some wool that's been on the back burner that I am using for new socks to wear with jeans through the long grey winter months. 

I love the variations on blue.

But we have to keep our strength up. Here's Fidget about to gobble
 one of Sunday's hand made  pizzas.We made 3: pepperoni and mushroom; pineapple and Canadian bacon; and just cheese.
 

 School work continues. And somehow, even next to the train tracks, with grey weather outside, it is encouraging. Math work is being understood, Fig's love of Greek mythology continues, and we get to be together all day long. Here's what we're reading these days. 

 God is good!